Portugal: Douro District

Port Wines of the Douro River and Porto Port wine is fortified wine, meaning that the alcohol content is raised by the addition of wine brandy. The wine grower must arrest fermentation by adding wine brandy to the must in a proportion of one part brandy to five parts must. This raises the alcohol content to approximately 20%. It is produced exclusively in the Douro region, the first great wine region in the world to be demarcated in 1756. In the past, the wine from the Douro was shipped by riverboats to port lodges in Porto; today, it is trucked. Visit the port lodges in Porto.

The Douro River has carved a canyon 1,500 to 2,000 feet deep in the uplands of eastern Portugal. The 4,600-foot Serra do Marao to the west prevents the Atlantic rains from reaching this area during the summer. The upper Douro River is probably the most improbable place for agriculture. The 60-degree slopes of slate and granite have no topsoil. Terraces had to be built to keep the human-made soil in place. Terrace walls are often 15 feet high and the fields are very small and irregular. Many of the terraces date to the 17^th century. With subsidies from the European Union, wine fields are being enlarged and terraces removed to allow for mechanization. The best vineyards today are around Pinhao. The famous port merchants have their own quintas – the farms or estates of rambling white buildings with red tile-roofed up on the hills. Visit Quinta das Carvalhas and Quinta del la Rosa. Portugal’s most distinctive contribution to table wine is vino verde, the fresh, slightly bubbly ‘green’ or young wines of mostly red or water-white. Here are the wine labels of Quinta da Aveleda and the agricultural cooperative, Adega Cooperativa de Ponte do Lima. Look at photos of vineyards in the Douro. Source: Hugh Johnson, The World Atlas of Wine – for the wine production and topographic maps.